Why you should look around

Since 2003, Chinese-forums.com has been helping people learn Chinese faster and get to China sooner. Our members can recommend beginner textbooks, help you out with obscure classical vocabulary, and tell you where to get the best street food in Xi'an. And we're friendly about it too.

武媚娘传奇 - Empress of China. Hot new drama.

Recommended Posts

Junso1 8

Junso1
8

Starting airing in december, taken offline due to cleavage and re-aired a couple weeks ago. Already on Episode 60, which I just watched tonight.

Has anyone been watching it? Anyone feel like translating this? Looks like there are no downloadable subs in Chinese or English and many people have requested it on youtube.

I transcribed and subbed the first episode in Chinese a few days ago. However, I'm not sure if I will attempt to translate them as the series is far too long for myself. Doesn't seem too hard though, clear accents. If someone faster and better at translating than I am is interested, I can share the transcript or .SRT subs.

Link to post

Share on other sites

oceancalligraphy 140

oceancalligraphy
140

For those curious about translating, you might be interested in The Empress of China page at viki.com for fan-based translation. It doesn't look like it's being translated at the moment, but it might pick up if others see translations.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Junso1 8

Junso1
8

You can torrent the original series. Frustratingly, nearly all mainstream Chinese streaming websites advertise unedited versions, which of course are the same approved for TV copies. Conspiracy, or false advertising?

The series does have great set, costume design and cinematography, making it easy on the eyes. I like the voices from the lead actors as well, so I don't have any complaints in that area. I've been watching the edited IQIYI version out of convenience, but I downloaded some original episodes in HD to see the difference.

As far as the story and acting goes, it won't change your life... I'm generally not a fan of the genre, but it's not the worst Tang period drama on Chinese TV either...

There is a lot of overacting as if performing for a theater audience. The expressive acting can be fun in certain contexts, but off-putting and soapy at times. Some of this may be exacerbated by the closer edits. The story also takes its sweet time advancing key plot points, which is probably par the course for an 80 episode drama. I'm not too bothered by this, considering they release several episodes a day. If they dragged the 80 episodes out over 8 years, it would be criminal.

I didn't watch all 60 episodes glued to the screen, but it's a good show to have on in the background. It's not going to off-seat any period favorites (刁蛮公主), but it does have enough to redeem it in my opinion.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Sajimi 3

Sajimi
3

I seriously expected something far worse, cleavage-wise, considering all I heard/ read about it! Thanks for the before/ after pics; it does just look like they zoomed in and reframed everything. Surely, they must have better things to do.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

uni419 11

uni419
11

You can torrent the original series. Frustratingly, nearly all mainstream Chinese streaming websites advertise unedited versions, which of course are the same approved for TV copies. Conspiracy, or false advertising?

Hey, not to sound like a total noobie, but would you mind telling me where I could do that, not finding it on oldpiratebay and not familiar with Chinese torrent sites, looking to find mkv or mp4 files so I can use it with sub2srs

(also any suggestions on how to manually create or find soft sub files (.srt or some such) using a mac?)